I've had two semi-lucid dreams. In one, I checked the time on my phone (it had the same background and everything as in real life- weird!) and the time said 6:88, which of course, was an impossible time. The other lucidish dream was because of a rubber band. I had been wearing a rubber band to snap as a reality check (if I felt the pain, it was real life), and it was brown. For some reason, I saw a green rubber band on a woman's arm, and I was like, "Hey that's not right- my rubber band is brown!" which made no sense- it wasn't even my arm, but then I was like, "Hey I must be dreaming!" and I flew off. What has made you realize you are dreaming?

“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” -Edgar Allan Poe

For me as I dont usually tend to reality check at all, for me its an inner knowing which actually makes me aware that Im dreaming. I dont notice anything odd about the dream usually at all but just know its one. (maybe this is a good payoff of all the spiritual work Ive done on myself in the past). My inner knowing/intuition helps me in this and in real life too at times.

Does anyone else here usually rely on inituition to tell them when they are dreaming? combined just the wish to have a LD. I havent heard anyone else mention this but I doubt Im alone with this.

When I do things like looking at my hands.. its for stability or just interest in what my hands are going to look like in a dream rather then doing things like this for a reality check.

Most of the time when I become lucid in a dream, I simply just become lucid spontaneously. It's like my cognitive mind just wakes up for some reason.

But sometimes I notice an anomaly such as seeing a dead relative. I will say to others, "Isn't it great that they are still alive here in this dimension or alternate timeline. Where I come from they are dead." And I go along with the dream as if that makes perfect sense to me before I finally put 2 and 2 together and realize it is a dream and become lucid and take control.

Only twice has a reality check habit been the instigator. I tend to make objects move or draw them to my hand like a Jedi with the 'force' as my reality check. When something is too far away and just out of reach I wish it to come to me. Twice it actually worked and when it did I realized immediately it was a dream. But that is rare for me and I do reality checks after I already get a sneaking suspicion after my cognitive, waking mind has already awoken. I've actually had non-lucid dreams in which I do reality checks and whether they work or not I still remain my irrational dreaming self!

Why my mind awakens sometimes and not other times is still a mystery to me. But for the most part it is simply spontaneous. I am still amazed how I can get bizarre dreams and question why and what is going on and still not be able to make it click and realize I am dreaming. And yet other times I need no effort at all. It's like a part of my brain just clicks and wakes up and that is all that is needed.

Stephen Laberge actually made a list of categories for all the ways one realizes they are dreaming. The categories are as follows:1. Inner Awareness Subcategories: Thoughts, EX: "When I thought I didn't want to crash, the car swerved back on the road"Emotions, EX: "I am so unbelieveably angry at my sister that I throw something a woman gave her into the sea."Sensations: EX: "A strong wave of sexual arousal comes over me."Perceptions: EX: "Somehow, I could see perfectly without my glasses"2. ActionSubcategories: Ego Action: EX: "Doing pull-ups got easier and easier"Character Action: EX: "D kisses me passionately Infront of her boyfriend" Object Action: EX: "The car accerelerates dangerously, and the breaks don't work"3. FormSubcategories:Ego Form: "I am a woman" (dreamed by a man)Character Form: "A giant with a "Creature from the Black Lagoon" type of head walks by."Setting Form: "The drafting room was the wrong shape"Object Form: "My cellphone read 6:88" (your dream )4. Context Subcategories: Ego Role: EX: "We are fugitives from the law."Character Role: EX: "My friend is acting exactly like my girlfriend."Character Place: "Eminem was seated on a chair in my room"Object Place: "My bed was in the street"Setting Place: "I'm on a colony on another planet"Setting Time: "I am in grade school"Situation: "A movie is being filmed at my house"

taniaaust1 wrote:For me as I dont usually tend to reality check at all, for me its an inner knowing which actually makes me aware that Im dreaming. I dont notice anything odd about the dream usually at all but just know its one. (maybe this is a good payoff of all the spiritual work Ive done on myself in the past). My inner knowing/intuition helps me in this and in real life too at times.

Does anyone else here usually rely on inituition to tell them when they are dreaming? combined just the wish to have a LD. I havent heard anyone else mention this but I doubt Im alone with this.

When I do things like looking at my hands.. its for stability or just interest in what my hands are going to look like in a dream rather then doing things like this for a reality check.

Mostly I've had lucid dreams where it just hit me all of a sudden, and a few times something illogical happens and I know I'm in a dream. My favorite way I became lucid was I had a dream I woke up in bed, and I went back to sleep trying to get a lucid dream with WILD. I was imagining I was lying on a sandy beach then all of a sudden I felt sand under we and when I "opened" my eyes I was at a beach.

Roxas: Did you have fun chatting with the ghosts?Sora: You shouldn't call them "ghosts". Sure something seemed a little off but I'm sure they're still my friends

taniaaust1 wrote:For me as I dont usually tend to reality check at all, for me its an inner knowing which actually makes me aware that Im dreaming. I dont notice anything odd about the dream usually at all but just know its one. (maybe this is a good payoff of all the spiritual work Ive done on myself in the past). My inner knowing/intuition helps me in this and in real life too at times.

Does anyone else here usually rely on inituition to tell them when they are dreaming? combined just the wish to have a LD. I havent heard anyone else mention this but I doubt Im alone with this.

When I do things like looking at my hands.. its for stability or just interest in what my hands are going to look like in a dream rather then doing things like this for a reality check.

I am the exact same way! every night I just find myself in a lucid dream, lucid. No need for reality checks except for sometimes even when I'm lucid, ill think..wait is this real life? But that's just because my dream is so realistic! Haha!